Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/132

 100 HISTORY OF GREECE. received the sunender of the Greek maritime c'lij, Plias^lis. He assisted the Phaselites in destroying a mountain fort erected and garrisoned against them by the neig"hboring Pisidian moun- taineers, and paid a public compliment to the sepulchre of their deceased townsman, the rhetorician Theodektcs.^ After this brief halt at Phaselis, Alexander directed his course to Perge in Pamphyha. The ordinary mountain road, by which he sent most of his army, was so difficult as to require some lev cling by Thracian light troops sent in advance for the ^jurposc. But the king himself, with a select detachment, took a road more difficult still, under the mountains by the brink of the sea, called Klimax. When the wind blew from the south, this road was covered by such a depth of water as to be impracticable ; for some time before he reached the spot, the wind had blown strong from the south — but as he came near, the special providence of the gods (so he and his friends conceived it) brought on a change to the north, so that the sea receded and left an available passage, though his soldiers had the water up to their waists.^ From Perge he marched on to Side, receiving on liis way envoys from Aspendus, who offered to surrender their city, but depre- cated the entrance of a garrison ; Avhich they were allowed to buy off promising fifty talents in money, together with the horses which they were bringing up as tribute for the Persian king. Having left a garrison at Side, he advanced onward to a strong place called Syllium, defended by brave natives with a body of mercenaries to aid them. These men held out, and even re- pulsed a first assault ; which Alexander could not stay to repeat, being apprised that the Aspendians had refused to execute the conditions imposed, and had put their city in a state of defence. Returning rapidly, he constrained the;n to submission, and then marched back to Perge ; from whence he directed his course to- wards the greater Phrygia,^ through the difficult mountains, and almost indomitable population, of Pisidia. 1 Arrian, i. 24, 11 ; Plutarch, Alexand. 17. '■' Arrian. i. 26, 4. ova uvev tov d^eiov, uc avrog te koI oi uuif avrbv l^j}- /ovvTo, etc. Strabo, xiv. p. 666 ; Curtius, v. 3, 22. Plutarch's words (Alexand. 17) must be taken to mean that Alexander did not boast so much of this special favor from the gods, as some of Iiis panegyrists boasted for him ^ Arrian, i. 27, 1- 8